I Bless the Rain Down in Africa....

That's from Toto, I think and I'm not even sure those are the correct lyrics but that's how we feel. The rain did not come this year during the rainy season. The crops haven't come in like they usually do. We've heard rumor that people have died in the north due to crop failure. Carmelita has asked many of you to pray for night rain. By raining at night, it will allow us to continue to meet with the girls and do our work. They have to walk so far, it would help that it not be in the rain. And by having the rain at night, it will also help cool us down.

We've been having a lot of problems with the electricity. We've had two more nights without any power. That means no fans. Last night, it rained and even as I sit here tonight, it is raining. Continue to pray for rain for these people.

The food here has been good and plentiful here. Every morning, we have toast, eggs, and bananas. Every day at lunch, we have rice, beans, potatoes, beef, chapulta (I'm guessing at the spelling) which is like a tortilla, and boiled mashed bananas. Dinner is either Ugandan pizza and fries or rice, beans, chicken, potatoes, boiled mashed bananas, and once, the most delicious green beans and carrots I've ever had.

The men joined us here in Gulu on Saturday for the festival. The festival was awesome! Over 400 children from six different camps met us at a local Baptist church/school grounds. We thought that we were going to work with them but they had other plans. It was truly a festival. Children from each camp have organized dance groups that sing and dance. They only have drums for music but can they every make them play. My favorite drum is the calabash. It is half of a gourd that is much, bigger than a large pumpkin. They dry it and clean it. They take spokes from a bicycle and joined them together with a handle and use that instead of a drum stick. It makes a sound like no other and I just love it.

We got there about 12:30. The children took turns singing and dancing for us until lunch was ready at 4:00!! Three and half hours dancing out in the middle of the hot African sun! They jump and stomp at a furious pace. They sang songs of welcome to the visitors. They sang songs about the Lord and how He saved them. They sang that they were tired of being kidnapped. And they sang songs of joy. It is amazing and humbling to sit and listen to them sing with such joy and gratefulness. After lunch, Mary (a.k.a. Scary Mary who is becoming not so scary) narrated the story of Shadrac, Meshac, and Abednigo -- ok, I know I butchered those names but you know who I'm talking about. She used all of us as actors in the story. We had masks and props. The kids seemed to love it. Then it was time for them to go back to the camps.

Sunday we went to church at Watoto. This church started two years ago with 300 and currently has 1500 members. It is a satellite location of a larger church. I understand they have a website. Anyway, it was a great service. It happened to be their two anniversary and they had planned for the service to be outside. They had chairs set up for everyone. Luckily they sold umbrellas to protect us from the sun. Most of the service was in English and so were most of the songs. The service was broadcast simultaneously on two radio stations. We really enjoyed it. We met some people that we met at the Tampa airport. Hearts of Fire is a group of medical people who travel on missions to help others. They traveled the whole way here with us.

After lunch, we went to one of the camps and saw how the beads are made. Most of us took the opportunity to make a bead or two. Then the men headed back out to the land. We will get to go out to the land and stay the night on Friday before leaving for home on Saturday. There the women will get to experience life on the land. Pray that we hang tough!!